Minimum-dissipation principle for synchronized stochastic oscillators far from equilibrium.

We prove a linear stability-dissipation relation (SDR) for q-state Potts models driven far from equilibrium by a nonconservative force. At a critical coupling strength, these models exhibit a synchronization transition from a decoherent into a synchronized state. In the vicinity of this transition, the SDR connects the entropy production rate per oscillator to the phase-space contraction rate, a measure of stability, in a simple way. For large but finite systems, we argue that the SDR implies a minimum-dissipation principle for driven Potts models as the dynamics selects stable nonequilibrium states with least dissipation. This principle holds arbitrarily far from equilibrium, for any stochastic dynamics, and for all q.